Air India on Sunday said that 87 bodies have been handed over to the family members and relatives of the passengers who died in the Mangalore plane crash.

All the 158 bodies have been recovered from the crash site, Air India spokesperson Harpreet Singh De said.

"All the 158 bodies have been recovered from the crash site and 87 bodies have already been handed over to relatives," De told reporters here today.

Air India was trying its best to provide all assistance to the passengers' family members, she said.

International Agency for emergency response and rescue operations, US-based Kenyon, has already been contacted by Air India to support the airline in the search and retrieval operation, she said.

"We have deputed one person from our emergency management to assist the relatives at Mangalore," De said.

She said that investigations by the DGCA and Air India's flight safety department were on and the black box of the crashed aircraft is yet to be recovered.

In the country's worst air disaster in a decade, a Boeing 737 plane of Air India Express overshot the airport runway in Mangalore and burst into flames yesterday morning killing 158 people but eight others survived. PTI